The New Camry
Posted on October 29, 2006 - Filed Under Uncategorized
Last week, i had to bring my father’s car to Toyota in Butterworth after realizing that there was a small crack on the front windscreen. Since it was an ‘oversea’ trip, my parents and my brother decided to tag along. I had to bring a few documents to proof that the windscreen was insured and will replaced for free if any defects were found.
Upon reaching one of the biggest Toyota Centres in Malaysia, i could see a lot of people crowding the showroom area. I wasn’t too surprised about it as the new Camry has just been launched a few days ago.
My brother who is a car enthusiast just disappeared from us and joined the crowd. As we waited for the paperworks to be done, one of the main person who was taking care of our matter told us to have a look at the new Camry.
The difference between the island branch and the mainland branch was that the sales people over in Penang Island were more like vultures. They will surround you while you are trying to have ‘a feel’ of the car and my dad personally hates that. That’s another main reason why he hates shopping, he simply hates people tailing him. In Butterworth it was different. Sales people only approach once someone asked for more information or asked to be followed.
My dad decided to go for a test drive and after a mere 5 minutes, a spanking new 2.4 Camry was brought to us.
My dad drove us around the area and boy was it powerful. I didn’t expect that much difference as my father’s current Camry is 2.2 and that’s only 200 cc difference. But later i found out that the horsepower has been increased and it’s at least one and half more compared to the Camry we have.
The speedometer was something that did catch my attention. It was like some 3D kinda thing and it looks sophisticated.
During the test drive, my father was asking on the colours available and i interupted by asking the salesman about a silver greyish colour. The salesman showed the colour chart and my father didn’t like the colour i chose. Instead he asked about black colour. Then my mum voiced out saying no black colour cars in her house -_-” Then my brother was asking if there’s any in white.
Knowing that there was a conflict in colours, the salesman cleverly asked my father to drive into the Toyota Warehouse where all the cars were kept. We stopped in front of a few Camrys like the photo above. We all got off to have a better look on the colours.
Finally my dad said the colour i chose was nice. Well it does look like the BMW colour and the best part was the salesman said that car is available anytime. He even asked if my dad would want to take the car now. Of course when there’s anything to do with money, everything has to go thru the approval of our very own finance minister, my mum. If it has nothing to do with grocceries, books or medicince then the answer is a NO for on the spot purchase. Anyway my father was sane enough to decline eventhough he was drooling all over the car.
Once we were satisfied with the colours, we got back into the car to get back to the centre. This time my dad called me and asked if i would want to drive.
Bells started ringing in my head and all i could see is a spotlight shining towards the driver’s seat with the ignition key twinkling away.
I wasn’t used to the car at first as the handbrake is now situated at the left leg, more like a legbrake to me. The car did feel powerful and i decided to keep it at 60. I didn’t know there were front sensors till a motorbike passed us and it started beeping. The car’s profile is higher compared to my father’s and that’s a good. Everytime when my family goes out, there’s always a thud sound on either one of the two front wheels when we hit a bump and it wasn’t pleasent to hear.
My dad haven’t actually decided yet as we have already eyed on getting a MyVi for my mum. But whatever the outcome is, there won’t be a new car anytime soon till at least February as my mum was adamant on getting the number plate with the letters ‘PHD ….”
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5 Responses to “The New Camry”
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you mean the handbrake is on the pedals now? haha then this car is made to fight with continental cars lo … all conti cars have their handbrake there …
yeap, it’s near the pedals. i didn’t know till the salesman asked me to step on it to let go of the handbrake -_-”
Your mom sure has good tastes.
hahaha, my mum makes sure that no one gets a black or red car
The brand new camry rock socks wey. My dad was drooling over it too. Haha